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Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote plans to expand the Dangote refinery from its current 650,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 1.4 million b/d, which would make it the biggest in the world on completion.
The funding for the project is expected to come from Middle Eastern sources, putting it on track to surpass the current world’s largest refinery, the 1.36 million b/d refinery in Jamnagar, India.
How Expansion of Dangote Refinery to Biggest in the World Will Unfold
Engineers working at the Lekki Dangote Refinery complex told S&P Global in an interview that it was designed with room for growth, pointing out empty concrete plots capable of holding a second refining system.
Expanding could involve building a second refinery with the same configuration, one engineer said, potentially with the addition of a vacuum distillation unit to boost light ends yields.
The company is also working on potential linear alkylbenzene and base oils projects, and aims to grow its annual polypropylene capacity from 1 million mt to 1.5 million mt in the next few years, Dangote said.
To expand the refinery and develop a new petrochemicals project in China, Dangote is actively considering a strategic partnership with Middle Eastern companies, the group president remarked.
Dangote’s upstream assets in the Niger Delta, Oil Mining Lease 71 and 72, could provide a new source of feedstock for the refinery, with production expected to start this month and reach up to 40,000 b/d.
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